Greetings WWI Comrades!
I hope that this message finds you all well and that the summer has been an enjoyable one. Here in the U.S. many of us are already firmly in the throes of the Fall semester despite the continuing warm weather.
As the GSA conference approaches, I wanted to suggest a get together for those of us who want to meet, network and discuss WWI-related topics. I also thought we might want to discuss the future of this group. It’s been almost a year since we met in Pittsburgh and I have been thinking about ways to improve or expand this group. It has been originally conceived as a conference group with not much life outside the GSA conference, but we may want to re-think this.
Some items we could discuss (in no particular order):
1. Opening up this list to more announcements, queries, or discussions. In Pittsburgh last year, there was the general consensus that members did not want to join another mass email distribution listserv. However, I have had a couple people contact me looking to send messages out to WWI German members. Out of respect for the decision made last year, I directed these people to our membership list on the website, rather than fill your inboxes. But I wonder if we might re-visit this question. I think that members who want to ask other members for advice, information, or guidance, might find it useful. Especially graduate students. I’d like to discuss the possibilities of the list–especially now that the International Society for First World War Studies will be shifting to a paid members-only listserv.
2. Drew Bergerson has been working steadily with the WWI museum in Kansas and he has also expressed interest in the possibility of a 2014 GSA meeting in Kansas City to capitalize on the nearby museum. This would be another topic of discussion. At one point David Barclay was also suggesting this, so getting him on board would be a good idea, too. We could open up discussion on this.
3. I would like to float the idea of creating some “dedicated WWI panels” for the next GSA meeting. This could mean either deciding on panel topics in advance and then soliciting papers or creating panels from a pool of papers that we collect first and create panels from to then propose to the GSA conference committee. They would still need to undergo the usual vetting process, but I think that with such a large group of scholars whose work touches on WWI (we are over 60 at this point!), it would not be difficult to put together 3-4 panels on WWI every year. It would also facilitate graduate student participation/networking and mentoring from senior scholars. However, this task is not something that I can do by myself, so we would need to create some sort of Arbeitsgruppe to handle the coordination of this.
4. Ideas for the website. I have created this very basic website (actually, an IT person did the work). But I could use some suggestions for making it more useful to our membership or scholars at large. I am happy to report that UNC-Charlotte is supporting the work on this, so we can expand it or add things if you have suggestions. If you don’t have it handy, here is the link: http://pages.charlotte.edu/ww1/.
(Previously at http://www.history.uncc.edu/ww1/index.html)
As for a meeting at the GSA conference, I have noted that there is already a gathering planned for grad students and another for junior faculty on Fri evening after the banquet at 10 pm. What about if we meet at 6 pm on Friday right before the banquet? I don’t think our meeting need take long and there would be enough time to still get a drink at one of the nearby receptions and hear Peter Gay’s talk at dinner.
I hope that some of you will be attending the conference in San Diego and that you will want to get together to discuss these and other matters related to WWI history, culture, politics, and society in German-speaking Europe! Even if you are not, please let me know if you still want to be included in future messages. I will definitely send out a summary of things we discuss in San Diego to those interested.
mfG,
Heather Perry